How to place “Description” field in List under the field name itself?

Question

In my Office 365 (SharePoint Online) I have a very simple Custom List which has a few columns/fields, and I added some description to add clarity to users. The problem is that the description's text gets added on the right-side underneath. Also,The company are not allowing using InfoPath nor any third-party solution. So, My only options are: SharePoint Designer & JavaScript.

Is there any way in SharePoint Designer or JavaScript to move the "Description" field under its column's text itself? Something like the screenshot below:

Could you please guide me how to accomplish this?

I would sincerely appreciate any help in this, Please !

Thank you very much !

Answer 1

This only works on Classic Forms where the layout is a TABLE

Once the page is created you execute JavaScript to move the DOM elements in the second TD column containing the description to the first TD column

1. Find Field by definition in <!-- comment -->
2. Find description by ms-metadata
3. move (appendChild) Node to first Column (first TD after TR)
4. add a BR so the description is below the Fieldname

Allmost all answers/blogs will take you on a jQuery adventure for Step 1. Finding the TD with input fields, then parsing innerHTML to find that (green) String

The native JavaScript TreeWalker API/class/Object can get the Comments node with one call.
(IE9 was the last Browser to finally support this)

The jQuery lovers will then do String magic to get the data from that green string comment.

One eval statement can turn that comment into 3 variables.

Solution

So the only native JavaScript you have to use
(from a Content Editor WebPart below your Form, so it executes after the Form is displayed)

is:

var formCSI = new function (form){
function getComments(element) {
    function acceptNode() {     // IE *requires* this argument where other browsers don't.
        return NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT;
    }

    var safeFilter = acceptNode;// IE *requires* this argument where other browsers don't.
    safeFilter.acceptNode = acceptNode;
    return document.createTreeWalker(element, NodeFilter.SHOW_COMMENT, safeFilter, false);
}

  var tree=getComments(form);
  while (node=tree.nextNode()) {//loop all found <!-- comments -->
    eval(node.nodeValue.replace(/ Field/g, ';var CSI_') + ';');//convert comment to vars
    console.info(CSI_InternalName,CSI_Type,CSI_Name);
    var TD=node.parentNode;//column with input field
    var TR=node;while (TR.tagName !== 'TR') TR = TR.parentNode;//find parent TR row
    this[CSI_InternalName]=TR;// store TR as formCSI.[internalName] eg. formCSI.Title
    var desc=TD.getElementsByClassName('ms-metadata')[0];//find description span
    if(desc){
      console.info('Move Description','\n',desc,'\n',TR.firstElementChild);
      TR.firstElementChild.appendChild(desc);//move description to first Column
      desc.insertBefore(document.createElement('BR'),desc.firstChild);//add BR before desc
    }
  }
  return this;//return formCSI as object
}(document.querySelector('.ms-formtable'));//IIFE execute function immediatly

//formCSI now is an object referencing all Form Row TR elements
formCSI.Title.style.background='pink';
formCSI.AssignedTo.style.display='none';// 'table-row' to show again

You can delete half the lines,
I left them in to show how easy Form manipulation without jQuery is.

Since native javascript .appendChild() actually moves elements, you could move any whole Field into any other HTML layout...

iForm